Friday, August 6, 2010

Pennsylvania’s Insurance Department received more than a thousand requests to enter its new high-risk insurance pool during the first 24 hours of its application window.About 11-hundred applications have already been filed for the state’s new insurance plan, PA Fair Care, targeted at people with preexisting health conditions.Insurance Department spokeswoman Melissa Fox says that’s about a third of the program’s 35-hundred person cap.

"The limitation on enrollment is based simply on the fact we are receiving 162 million dollars from the federal government. The 162 million, when we look at the benefit package, will only be able to cover approximately 35-hundred individuals."

Fox says every applicant may not be eligible.

"We have to do our due diligence by verifying social security numbers, citizenship and verifying that a preexisting condition exists. So I would not discourage folks to log on and complete an application."

The plan has a subsidized monthly premium of 283 dollars.Fox says the program will serve as a three-year bridge until 2014, when the new federal health care law goes into effect. The health care overhaul will bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions.